Kalopsidha: the Swedish stratigraphic campaign of 1959

Trench 9 at Koufos, Kalopsidha, yielded about 223,000 sherds in the 1959 campaign directed by Paul Åström¹. Of these Åström classified 95,936¹. The deposit ran from Middle Cypriot III through Late Cypriot II and included Iron Age sherds¹.

Trenches at Yastrika and Koufos

The work was carried out under the royal patronage of King Gustaf VI Adolf and the auspices of the Swedish Cyprus Expedition¹. The aim at Kalopsidha was to cut stratigraphic sections through the Late Cypriot settlement, to clarify relative chronology and obtain stratified pottery series¹. Åström opened Trenches 1 to 5 at Yastrika on 24 August, Trenches 6 and 7 on 25 August and Trenches 8 and 9 at Koufos on 26 August; the Kalopsidha work ended on 2 September^1,2. Mme Åström assisted him in the stratigraphic work².

Trenches were dug in artificial layers, usually about 10 cm thick where natural strata or floor levels were absent¹. Trenches 1, 2 and 4 to 8 measured 5 by 1 m and Trench 3 measured 8 by 1 m¹. Trench 9 was dug to virgin soil in only three parts, because the deposit had been disturbed¹.

The burnt building in Trench 3

Trenches 1, 2 and 4 to 8 had no surviving walls and produced mostly stray sherds, predominantly Middle Cypriot; the Late Cypriot sherds among them came only from Trench 8, near the Koufos settlement¹. In Trench 3, three walls formed two rooms of a building on the hill. Room 2 had a stamped-clay floor and an ash layer, and Åström concluded that fire destroyed it; room 1 was not burnt¹. Early Cypriot Tomb 34 lay beneath the floor of room 2, a pit tomb of Early Cypriot IC; the weathered human-bone fragments from it, about 90, were identified in Åström's osteological study as an adult female¹.

The rooms held large pithoi and jugs, and a spindle-whorl came from room 2. Åström suggested that the rooms may have served as storerooms in a larger complex¹. His report places the building's construction around the middle of Middle Cypriot III and its destruction before that period ended; the 1960 annual Chronicle by V. Karageorghis gave an approximate date of 1600^1,2.

Trench 9

Finds from Trench 9 included about 260 nearly intact vessels, copper slag and a handle inscribed with Cypro-Minoan signs². The report also documents copper slag and ore, bronze fragments and metalworking debris, which Åström read as evidence that metal was smelted and metal goods made at the settlement¹. He interpreted the assemblage as a refuse dump outside a settlement and not a cemetery, noting that no certain cult objects or intact house remains had been found¹. He cautioned that the disturbed deposits could give only a general picture of development, and that only the lowest layers were useful for tracing changes in pottery style¹. The report says the Koufos settlement was deserted some time around 1400 B.C.¹.

Later scholars have read the trench differently. Webb (1999) reinterpreted it as a possible sanctuary, citing parallels with Athienou-Bamboulari tis Koukounninas: low-fired miniature vessels as possible votives, immature sheep and goat bones, metalworking and a position on the overland copper route³. Crewe offers a different reading, a "packaging" centre for export containers³. She also notes that levels 64C and 72, which Åström took as undisturbed Middle Cypriot III, may now carry a Late Cypriot I date, citing Manning and colleagues (2002)³.

Soundings at Ayios Iakovos

From 3 September, for two days, three trenches (A to C, each 4 by 1 m) were dug to rock at Ayios Iakovos, locality Kakotris, plot 218, with four workmen¹. Middle and Late Cypriot surface sherds had prompted them, but the report says no settlement was found. The material was predominantly Middle Cypriot III, with some Middle Cypriot II and Late Cypriot sherds, and two chamber tombs were identified above the northern side of the plot¹.

On 5 September the Department of Antiquities partly investigated one of the tombs after it had been reported¹. Åström's report names it Tomb 15, following the numbering of the Swedish Cyprus Expedition, and says it had been at least partly looted¹. The Department made a small trial pit at the north-west corner and found disordered bones and bronze fragments, and two White Painted IV bowls in a niche¹. Åström dated the principal vessels to late Middle Cypriot II or early Middle Cypriot III; the annual notice says three vessels allowed a date of Middle Cypriot III, approximately 1700^1,2.

Finds and publication

The Swedish share of the finds was shipped free of charge by the Swedish Orient Line, first to Athens for study and then to Sweden for final deposit in the Museum of Classical Antiquities (Antikmuseet) in Lund¹. The listed finds from Tomb 15 are in the Cyprus Museum, inventory 1959/IX-11/1, except the sherds from above the dromos, which are in Lund¹. Åström published the work in 1966 as Excavations at Kalopsidha and Ayios Iakovos in Cyprus, Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology II, with specialist studies of plant remains, bones, pollen and molluscs¹.